THE football news from this weekend is enough to make most readers check the date. Fabio Quagliarella is Serie A’s leading goal scorer, Giuseppe Rossi is training with Manchester United and Ryan Babel looked like an impressive Premier League player. Following up on those surprising developments was a Monday morning story that Kevin-Prince Boateng was in talks over a move to Barcelona, a revelation that surely had yet more people double-checking their calendars.
Yes, in 2019 the Ghanaian midfielder really does seem set to become Lionel Messi’s newest team-mate with Gianluca Di Marzio the first to break the news. According to the Sky Italia transfer expert, the Catalan giants have agreed that Boateng will arrive on loan this month at a cost of €2 million with an option to make the deal permanent in the summer for a fee of €8 million.
The 31-year-old – after spending the 2016/2017 campaign in La Liga with Las Palmas and last term in Germany at Eintracht Frankfurt – only returned to Serie A back in July, but to further compound just how inexplicable this potential move seems, it must be noted that he has spent this season playing as a false nine for Sassuolo.
Ousmane Dembélé completed 11 take-ons in 69 minutes vs. Leganés; the most by any player in a single LaLiga game so far this season.
He was tearing it up before getting injured. pic.twitter.com/5pM1qODQvW
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) January 21, 2019
With Ousmane Dembele set to be out injured for several weeks, Malcom linked with a Camp Nou exit and Paco Alcacer already gone to Borussia Dortmund, Barca are clearly in the market for attacking reinforcements but it is hard to see Boateng being anything close to the answer for them.
He has scored five goals in 15 appearances for Sassuolo, but four came against teams (Cagliari, Genoa, Empoli and Bologna) who all sit in Serie A’s bottom seven, while the other came in a cup tie with third-tier side Ternana.
What makes it more incomprehensible is that the most recent of those strikes was on October 28, meaning it is not as if the Blaugrana are even chasing an in-form player to help them out of their current predicament. Sassuolo themselves only sit 12th in the table, with a closer look at the Ghana international’s contributions unlikely to reveal any underlying reason for Barca’s interest.
Back in his first spell with AC Milan, Max Allegri took to deploying him in an advanced role where he could initiate a high-pressing game and win the ball back in opposition territory, but that has not been the case here with Boateng averaging 0.5 tackles and 0.3 interceptions per 90 minutes according to Opta statistics. He has hardly been a creative force either, notching just one assist all season and connecting with just 23 passes per game.
10 – Only Loic Remy (11) will have played in more different teams than Kevin Prince Boateng (10) for a current player in the Top 5 European Leagues. Variety #FCBarcelona pic.twitter.com/HglWcQyf6a
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) January 21, 2019
Of course, the one thing he does have is experience. Not only did he spend a season in Spain recently but he has featured in countless high profile Champions League and title-deciding games during his time with Milan and is regarded as a strong, influential figure in the dressing room. He was praised for helping steer Frankfurt’s young players in the right direction by then-Coach Niko Kovac, while his current team-mates have lauded him for bringing those same qualities to the Mapei Stadium.
"He made a wonderful impression, he is a good person and a hard worker,” Neroverdi midfielder Stefano Sensi told Sky Italia earlier this season. “We see that he is clearly a leader, he gives positive advice and always tries to help you when you make mistakes without making those errors weigh us down.”
Interestingly, Sport Mediaset followed up Di Marzio’s report with one of their own which intimated that Sensi could actually follow Boateng to Barcelona in the summer and that development certainly seems much more logical than the original story.
“I honestly, didn’t know about before, but for me, he is an unbelievable young talent,” Boateng said of 23-year-old Sensi during an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport before the winter break. “He has so much quality, like a little Marco Verratti I always say because, like him, he has everything and if he learns to be consistent he can play any top team in Europe. He has everything to be honest; he is aggressive, he is skilful, he gives the perfect pass, he has perfect control.”
One of a few from Azzurri debutant, Stefano Sensi. pic.twitter.com/k84KvFbkX3
— Matthew Santangelo (@Matt_Santangelo) November 21, 2018
High praise indeed, and with Sassuolo already 12 points clear of the relegation zone but nowhere near a Europa League place, off-loading their highest paid player seems fairly logical for such a well-run club. Given that they also have strikers Khouma Babacar and Alessandro Matri sitting on the bench while Boateng fills their role in the team, it shouldn’t harm their results too much either.
So while on the surface this move seems like a throwback to years gone by, there is perhaps some sense to Monday’s news. Barcelona will – albeit with a player who is below their usual standards – fill a short term void in their squad while potentially securing a young talent for next season in Sensi.
At the same time, Sassuolo trim their wage bill and free up space for players such as Babacar to showcase their talent more regularly now a place in Serie A next term is all but guaranteed.
Like Rossi, Quagliarella and Babel being newsworthy in 2019, Kevin-Prince Boateng going to Barcelona remains a jarring thing to hear, but perhaps it’s not quite as crazy as it seems.
